U.S. struggles with shaping Iraq's army

Pentagon wants a force that can prevail there — but not strong enough to scare neighbors

JIM KRANE, Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Thursday, January 26, 2006

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - With American help, the Iraqi army is emerging as a lightly armed counterinsurgency force that may control more of the country than the U.S.-led coalition by this spring, U.S. military officials say.

But in coming years the Iraqi army will remain too weak to defend the country and reliant far into the future on America to guarantee Iraq's sovereignty, experts say.

"They're not going to be the 101st Airborne anytime soon," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, spokesman for the military transition command in Baghdad. "But in 2006, this is the year that the majority of Iraq will be secured by Iraqis."

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Wellman said that could happen by spring.

But the Pentagon also is grappling with designing a force that assuages the worries of neighboring countries victimized by Saddam Hussein's military.

"There is a concern in the region about giving them an offensive military capability," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of planning for the U.S. Central Command.

The dilemma for Washington, which wants to hand off its counterinsurgency duties and depart as soon as possible, is that a weak Iraqi army could leave U.S. forces providing security for Iraq for many years — as America has done for Japan since the end of World War II, said Mustafa Alani, a military analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.

Light infantry is the best force for the chief task at hand: defeating Iraq's guerrillas, Wellman said.

"The size of the army will hardly be an offensive threat" to other countries, he said.

But if Iraq is to avoid domination by neighbors — especially Iran — Alani said Baghdad will eventually need a military at least twice as large as planned, armed with weapons that are not in the cards: artillery, attack aircraft and even ballistic missiles.

"Self-defense can't be done with the forces they're talking about," Alani said. "If America wants an independent Iraq that can stand on its own and prevent intervention, there's no option but to build an offensive capability."

There are no plans to provide Iraq with artillery or other heavy weapons.

"When are we going to give them missiles or big artillery pieces? They're fighting guerrillas who disappear like the wind. That's not an artillery fight," Wellman said.

But heavy weapons and armor can still be useful against an insurgency.

Americans keep casualties down by riding in armored vehicles, which stand a better chance against roadside bombs. The United States sends jets to bomb insurgent positions and responds to mortar and rocket barrages with artillery fire. Lightly armed Iraqi forces suffer higher casualties.

Rearming Iraq isn't just an issue of money. Powerful interests want to see the military permanently downsized for various reasons, Alani said, naming Iraq's Kurds and Shiites, as well as Kuwaitis and Israelis, all of whom once found themselves targeted by Saddam's forces.